The new boss of under-pressure Thames Ambulance service says he was “surprised” to be served notice on its North Lincolnshire contract.

Thames Ambulance Service Limited (TASL) has come in for mounting criticism since taking over the northern Lincolnshire contracts 18 months ago for providing non-emergency transport for patients between home and hospital.

Elderly patients have complained of freezing cold waits and missed medical appointments, while a report last month by Care Quality Commission inspectors slammed it for a series of faults, identifying 23 areas for improvement.

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On Monday, NHS North Lincolnshire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) took the decision to serve notice on TASL , bringing the contract to a premature close in 12 months’ time.

But its neighbouring operation, the NHS North East Lincolnshire CCG, is opting to continue to work with the private transport provider, saying improvements had been made.

Thames Ambulance Service has come under-fire from MPs for leaving elderly patients stranded for hours

Derek Laird, the new chief executive of TASL, admitted TASL had “taken its eye off the ball” in northern Lincolnshire but promised the service would get better.

“It was a surprise [the termination of its North Lincolnshire contract] coming from the commission, to be honest, given we had made some significant improvements,” said the new boss, who started three weeks ago.

“Thames bid for a number of contracts about 8-9 months ago and was successful in all of them which was highly unusual,” Mr Laird told the Grimsby Telegraph.

“So the company had to start a lot of highly complex projects all at the same time and, quite frankly, took their eye off the ball in northern Lincolnshire and that has been recognised as a major shortfall and there are lessons to be learned.”